221B
by RobinRocks
Summary: He gave them the ring, but that doesn’t mean he gave them his blessing. 21 sentences for AutumnDynasty. Slight HolmesxWatson... I suppose.


Way back when in the year 2006, when e-dinosaurs roamed the interwebz, I wrote a _Sherlock Holmes_ fic called _Protégé Moi_ – naturally, it was based on the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and not the probably-not-even-thought-of movie that is still raking in cash in cinemas worldwide as we speak.

It's good to be back (even if this is posted in a different _Sherlock Holmes_ section). =)

This fic is dedicated to my pal **AutumnDynasty**, whose birthday it is today (20th January 2010). She is 21, and so this sentence-theme fic... is comprised of twenty-one sentences. How innovative. XD

(Both of us went into the movie highly sceptical since we're both such big fans of Conan Doyle's original works and we were expecting Hollywood to have mauled the mangled corpse of said original works backwards over a bed of nails, fire and broken glass before slapping it on our cinema screens and... well, what do you know? That movie _shut us up. _Sure, it has its flaws here and there (like being able to run from Parliament to Tower Bridge in like three minutes, but whatevs), but for the most part, we both thoroughly enjoyed it, enough to both see it twice. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.)

This fic. Very much about the whole Watson-marrying-Mary-Morstan-and-Holmes-being-less-than-impressed dynamic. Which is actually exactly what my other _Sherlock Holmes_ fic was about. Oh well.

Movie-verse, with a thing or two borrowed from the original stories.

Light HolmesxWatson. Maybe? If you squint? I dunno.

221B

**[Ring]**

He gave them the ring, but that doesn't mean he gave them his blessing.

**[Memory]**

"I remember the first time I ever met you," Watson muses; and when Holmes only arches an eyebrow in reply, his pallid face utterly expressionless, the doctor goes on, "and if you must know, I was hardly sure that I entirely liked you."

**[Box]**

_Oh, but I think that perhaps my journals were not meant to be read by you, Mary – I shall have to keep those boxes tightly locked._

**[Run]**

"It's _happening_, Holmes," Watson grinds out impatiently; and adds, to himself, _and it's something that you cannot run from by burying yourself behind books and bizarre cases._

**[Wings]**

Holmes has all sorts of odd fancies and articles strewn about his quarters; Watson had long grown used to them, swollen twisted toads in jars of their own poisons and great birds of prey reduced to nothing but bleached brittle bone, wings outstretched towards the gilt ceiling in a mocking performance of flight, and won't be sad to leave them behind.

**[Cold]**

He saw the way he greeted her; charm sewn into his smile, but the warmth reaching nowhere near his eyes.

**[Red]**

That red smoking jacket, well-worn, and the way Holmes' long fingers pluck at it when he's pretending to listen to Watson's every word.

**[Midnight]**

"What will you do," Watson snaps, "when you can no _longer_ bang down my door at this ungodly hour to insist that I join you upon one of your late-night bandying rampages through London's streets?!"

**[View]**

Watson plucks back the curtain at the window of the dogcart, utterly thrown as to where they are; Holmes leans back against his seat with his eyes closed and a languid smile on his face as he mutters "Hyde Park, old boy".

**[Music]**

"What will I miss?" Watson repeats, strangely uncomfortable with the question, his answer minimised as first his eyes and then his fingers fall upon the slender neck of the violin nestled in the cushions of the armchair like a queen.

**[Promise]**

"I never promised anything of the _sort_," Watson hisses, fists clenched as their argument swings in circles yet again.

**[Candle]**

Sherlock Holmes worshipping his needle and John Watson standing in the doorway with a ring gleaming on his finger and the hollow flickering light in the space between them.

**[Silence]**

"I see no reason why I should not attend your wedding," Holmes hums, not looking up from his newspaper, "unless, of course, you believe me incapable of holding my peace."

**[Talent]**

"You've a certain talent with women, that much I shall grant you," Watson says dryly; though he elaborates no further on whether he means Holmes' complete lack of interest in Mary or his dangerous, deluded interest in Irene.

**[Fire]**

"Oh, I fully expect him to have burned the house down by the time I return tomorrow afternoon," Watson says conversationally of Holmes' latest bout of irritable, incomprehensible depression as Mrs Hudson hands him his hat.

**[Strength]**

After almost an hour of bending the poker back and forth, the iron snaps in two in Holmes' hands; Watson does not even look up from clearing out his writing desk.

**[Mask]**

"Really, though, John," Mary murmurs, tightening her grip on his arm as they mill through the crowds of Covent Garden, "I expected Mr Holmes to be more disappointed about your leaving 221B."

**[Forget]**

"You think I am going to walk out of that church and forget I ever knew you, don't you?"

**[World]**

Watson and his writing were his window on the world.

**[Wait]**

"Wait!" Holmes bursts out; Watson stops, but Holmes says – _can_ say – nothing else, for he has no more to offer him.

**[Hope]**

"It is wicked of you to even hope, my dear Holmes," Watson whispers on that final night, covering his ring finger, aware of the strange, sad greed in those eyes he has known and loved for years.

* * *

I generally don't like HolmesxWatson slash (I had a whole rant about it in the ANs of _Protégé Moi_), but that movie… OMG, if that movie wasn't playing it up. Liek, srsly. O.o

(Robert Downey, Jr and Jude Law = OTP? You couldn't make this stuff up.)

Stuff borrowed from the books:

1] Holmes being strong enough to bend a poker. He does exactly this in _The Adventure of the Speckled Band_.

2] Holmes taking drugs. I am surprised they didn't touch on that one in the movie. It's a really integral part of his character.

Oh well, there is most definitely and obviously going to be a sequel, so maybe next time? :P

AutumnDynasty, I hope you liked it. I told you it was something special. Kakaka. Happy birthday!

RobinRocks xXx


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